Natasha was lured into the sex trade industry when she was 15, and trafficked for 10 years across Canada before managing to escape the clutches of her pimp, who was also her husband. Since, she has graduated from both college and university with honours, and has helped hundreds of others to break free from the destructive life of prostitution. She is the Founder and Director of SEXTRADE101, an activism organization which seeks to promote public awareness and education, and assists in policy and legislation change. She has been working in the criminal and social justice frontiers for over a decade, and is a Professor in the Police Foundations program at Humber College.

SEXTRADE101Understanding the Psychological and Sociological Impact of the Sex Trade

"It's not Canada's laws that make prostitution unsafe, it's the johns who are raping and abusing the women and their pimps," she said Wednesday. Falle added that the reason prostitutes don't call the police to report a violent date, isn't because they fear the police, it's because they don't want to be labelled a snitch with their escort agency. That apparently does not change in jurisdictions where prostitution is completely legal. "The Internet has driven prostitution indoors," said Falle," and the girls aren't any safer."

"Prostitution is the abuse of women plain and simple. My pimp preferred me behind closed doors," Natasha said. "So he could keep an eye on me." She concluded. "Purchasing sex doesn't make you a real man. Only 1% of prostitutes say they enjoy sex with johns and 97% say they want to get out."

“My former pimp is still pimping. I was conditioned not to phone the police when he threatened my family,” said the Calgary woman, the daughter of a retired morality squad officer who used to bust pimps and drug dealers. “Like battered wives, we are conditioned not to phone. I wanted to love him, believe he’d never do it again,” Falle said. “It was the conditioning of the sex trade industry that branded you a ‘rat’ or a ‘Snitch’ that prevented me from calling the police.”

Former Sex Trade Worker Tells All
Student newspaper of Conestoga College
By Allison Steinman

Falle, who worked in the sex trade industry for 12 years beginning at the age of 14, gave three lectures. She said she got into the business to escape a difficult childhood and also discussed what the sex trade is really like, dealing with drug addiction and an abusive relationship and finally getting out and reintegrating back into mainstream society.
“Most teens are putting on makeup and going to the mall and there I was, 14, with two girls who had already been involved in the sex trade practicing putting condoms on cucumbers,” she said. “You justify why it’s OK and why you’re different from the next person,” she added. Falle talked about how violence had been a big part of her life as it is for most girls involved in the trade. “I wouldn’t think twice to pull a knife if I had to,” she said. “Because I had to.”

"There's all these organizations that help empower people to be a prostitute and refer to this as a liberating job choice, but there's very few services to help people get out," Falle says. "You get turned away or people don't take you seriously or care, you assume that that's what all the people are, because that's what you've been brainwashed into in the (sex) business anyway, that these people don't care, that you're all alone to take care of your problems."

"The federal government will appeal an Ontario court ruling that struck down Canada's anti-prostitution laws. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson made the announcement today in the House of Commons. Tuesday's decision struck down three provisions of the Criminal Code surrounding prostitution -- communicating for the purposes of prostitution, keeping a common bawdy house, and living on the avails of the trade – saying they are a danger to sex workers."

"Ontario's Appeals Court began a week of hearings Monday in a landmark case that will decide if three anti-prostitution laws are constitutional. A lawyer for the Attorney General of Canada presented arguments for the federal and provincial government's case, contending that the sex trade itself is dangerous to women, not the laws aimed at curbing it.nOttawa's lawyer, Michael Morris, said that violent pimps and johns are the key safety hazard in the sex trade. He argued that because the act of engaging in the sex trade is not constitutionally protected, there should be no obligation to maximize the safety of prostitutes."

"When the Ontario Superior Court struck down some of the prostitution laws in September, many cheered the decision as a win for the personal safety and rights of sex workers. But police and some women say that striking down parts of the laws against living off the avails of prostitution and running a common bawdy house is a boon to sex traffickers with ties to organized crime, many of whom virtually enslave vulnerable women, coercing them into a life of prostitution from which it is nearly impossible to escape."

"TORONTO - A group of former sex trade workers asking why men should be allowed to buy sex from prostitutes gathered at a downtown court house to mark International Day of No Prostitution on Tuesday. Last month, Justice Susan Himel struck down the country's prostitution laws in Ontario as unconstitutional the charges of communicating for the purposes of prostitution, operating a common bawdy house and living off the avails. The constitutional challenge was brought forward by a Toronto dominatrix and two prostitutes who argued if prostitutes could work indoors, they would be safer."

W5: Rescuing the girl next door from the sex trade
When a prostitute is able to escape the sex trade, how do they regain their self esteem and reintegrate into society? W5 looks into a support organization that helps former prostitutes turn the page on their life of sexual slavery.
CTV News Article/Video: [Click Here]